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Aromis, The Elven Blademaster
Introduction to Aromis Aromis is a Night Elf that comes from a life of constant hardship, discipline, and danger. He is a very peculiar Night Elf, and is regarded as an anomaly not only for what he is, a Night Elf, and not only for what he has become, a Death Knight. His walk of life has been an odd one indeed, shifting from joy and sorrow in a constant fluctuation of gain and loss. This is the story of Aromis Nightfall, the Elven Blademaster. Beginnings Aromis Nightfall lived in a small village in the Ashenvale wilds. It was a Druidic community, far away from other settlements so that they could be closer to nature. Being this close to nature had its prices, however. They were constantly under threat of savage wildlife, demons, and satyrs, because the settlement was far too far away from any Sentinel sanctuary to receive help from them, and too far away from the main trade routes to receive supplies from Darnassus, so they fended for themselves, hunting and growing crops for food. Growing food always proved to be bountiful; since it was a Druidic society, their plant life was fast-growing and lush. Fruit was a staple source of many diets. The citizens of this town were more than comfortable in scanty clothing and quite often did their business around the town in animal forms. Aromis's parents were more often than not in their favored form of nightsabers, attending social events, hunting, gathering, and even displaying their affection toward one another in these forms. Obviously, they conceived Aromis the traditional way, as he's a night elf, instead of a cat. Overall, despite the necessity of knowledge of survival, Aromis had a pleasant, calm life. He had many friends, not all of them necessarily furless, and was overall very happy. One thing he did wish for, was for all the hatred and prejudice of his life go away. He hated it, believing that since prejudice doesn't happen among beasts, then it shouldn't happen among those that walk on two feet. Be careful what you wish for. Daggerfall Blood spraying everywhere... A mist of it clinging to the air it seemed... The sharp, shrill screech of steel meeting steel... The strong thud of mangled, mutilated, and mained bodies slamming into the blood-and-bile soaked soil beneath his feet... It was a raid. A large band of satyrs... They were killing everybody. Everyone that Aromis knew; his parents, his friends, and his neighbors, they were all dead, and he would soon share the gruesome fate if it weren't for quick thinking on his part. Aromis looked around, making sure that he wasn't being watched. It was a terrible thing, he thought, to make sure that the satyrs were too occupied in killing the others to take notice in his escape. Regardless, when he knew that it was clear, he ran. He ran long and hard, away from the sounds and sights of death in his old home. The screeching, crying, and sinister laughing steadily grew quieter as the sight of the decimated village faded away, and eventually vanished among the trees. Where he was running, he did not know, but he was certain that anywhere far from what he just saw would be good. Eventually, he stumbled upon a cliff with a dirt path that lead up a natural ramp to a cave in the mountainside. Aromis was exhausted from sprinting all that distance, and could only walk up the slope. When he got to the top of it, he crawled. Aromis crawled on hands and knees into the cavern, sweat dripping from his chin and brow and mixing with the dirt beneath him to make mud, dirtying his clothing. When he finally got to the other end of the tunnel, he vomited, then passed out from sheer exhaustion. When he awoken, he found himself in a foreign place, presumably in the mountains for he could see all the land stretched out before him. Upon standing up, an old-looking man with fangs and green skin approached him. He had never seen such a creature before. The man revealed his name to be Drak'nosh, and that he knew exactly what happened to Aromis not too long ago. He explained that he was communing with the spirits of the land, breathing in incense and creating an item calling a Scrying Bowl that allowed Drak'nosh to look upon things that he normally wouldn't see. Drak'nosh had noticed Aromis sprawled out on the ground, through his Scrying Bowl, right outside the tunnel that connected Stonetalon and Ashenvale, and thus rushed to help. He then told Aromis that he was going to teach him something. Teach him what, exactly? Teach him the Path of the Blademaster. The Stonetalon Mountains The trek wasn't too long, for the Stonetalon Mountains were rather close to Ashenvale. In fact, they were next-door neighbors. It took no time at all to get to Drak'nosh's home within them. The longest part, in fact, was getting into the house itself, for it resided about half-way into the mountains, in a natural crevice dug out within them, Drak'nosh had told Aromis. When Drak'nosh, carrying Aromis over his shoulder reached the hut, upon Aromis waking up from his fatigue-induced slumber, he inspected the area to see exactly where he was. He immediately picked up on several things about the land, one of these things being the fact that they were QUITE high in the mountains, and Drak'nosh's hut specifically. For one: He lived in but a small hut, but this hut contained a great deal of various reagents for different rituals of the Blademaster no doubt. Right next to his hut was a smithy, with flame that burned brighter than any he's seen, and without fuel, or air pumping, and the obvious anvil, though it was large, and runes were etched into it everywhere. On racks were swords of all types, all of them rather large, even the one-handers. Some of them were of neutral build and didn't exactly fit either faction, and some of them were blatantly made for either the Horde or the Alliance. This theme seemed to be true to the one-handed swords as well. To the right was a big lake, and to the right of the lake, a good deal of trees. The thing about the trees? They were burning. They were burnt to a crisp, but they were still ablaze. Fire elementals wandered idly in this small grove, growing and creating new elementals. In the water, Water Elemental surged around merrily. Above them, they were at the mercy of Wind and Storm elementals, and all around there were Earth Elementals. This was a site that was glorified by the Elemental Spirits of the world, Drak'nosh had explained to Aromis. Over the course of some time, Drak'nosh had taught Aromis the religion of Shamanism. Aromis had concluded that the Elemental Spirits lived in harmony with Nature, which answered to Cenarius and Elune. He had combined his original Druidic beliefs with his new Shamanistic beliefs, which made him understand clearly both walks of religion. In conjunction with the religious training, Drak'nosh took this lengthy time to teach Aromis how to hunt and survive on his own, as well as fish and track down herbs. Then game swords fighting. The Path of the Blademaster After Aromis had mastered tactics and the use of two one-handed weapons, Drak'nosh had moved to his smithy, where he picked up and offered Aromis two weapons: Earth's Strength, a neutral sword forged from a mixture of both elemental rock and obsidian metal, which made it a pitch black, and Stars' Path, a sword of obviously Alliance design. Aromis accepted them both, but primarily used Stars' Path for its weight. By now, he had grown into a muscle-bound machine, and could support the extra weight from the heavy blade. So commenced training. And damn was it more difficult than anything he has done in his life. Drak'nosh had come at him with full force from day one, and he crushed Aromis from day one. The big sword was very clumsy in his hands, for he was not used to it. The training was harder than when he was using two blades, and Drak'nosh was far more unforgiving. Sometimes, the training would span into the night and he would miss his meal to learn a single technique. It was all for good cause, though, for Aromis would never have become the warrior that he is without his training. The training of the Path of the Blademaster doubled the length of time it took for dual wielding. Then came the final duel. The Battle of Thunderous Rejoice One day, Aromis woke up early as usual, expecting a routine day of worship and religious practice, gruesome sparring, a possible meal and tutoring, then sleep. This wasn't a routine day. Drak'nosh was standing on the edge of their cliff, by the path that leads out of it, looking up into the rising sun, looking like he was contemplating. He then turned to Aromis, who had grabbed his sword and sheathed it on his back, and informed him that they would be trekking to the highest point in the Stonetalon Mountains. He told Aromis that there, he must slay Drak'nosh indefinitely, to free his spirit so that he may join his ancestors upon the Great Hunting Grounds. He explained that Drak'nosh couldn't die an honorable death unless it was by the hand of the pupil that he had taught from day one. He also explained that Aromis could not carry the title of Blademaster unless he can overcome an impossible odd, which would be the destruction of his sensei. Drak'nosh felt that Aromis had mastered the ways of two-handed swordsmanship, and that it was time for him to take the final test. Thus, they climbed high into the mountains, to the highest peak of Stonetalon. Upon arriving, Aromis first made note of the flame that burned without fuel in the middle of the plateau. It was encased in a ring of rune-etched rocks. Aromis immediately fell to a knee at the sight of it, and uttered a prayer before rising. Drak'nosh already had his sword out and he was in a battle-ready stance. Aromis unsheathed his blade and adopted his own stance. The sky above them begin to turn gray with overcast, then black with storm. The two stood at the ready, but neither made an advancement. Then, an ark of lightning strikes the elemental fire, coursing through the runed rocks, energizing them. The moment the lightning strikes, they lunged at one another. The first time that metal met metal, the rain came down, drenching the two. The fighting lasted for four days and three nights. There was no sleep - the fury of battle kept them awake. No drink - they drank the water that fell down upon them. No food - glorious combat was their sustenance. Side slashes were deflected by parries, uppercuts by sidesteps, jump swings by dodges, and swipes by jumps. Each contestant had honed their skill with the sword to an art form, and their acrobatic skills were unmatched. However, all things must come to an end. The End of Glorious Combat On the fourth day, Aromis had noticed a fatal flaw of Drak'nosh: He had become cocky in his parries, and his grip was not as tight as it should've been on his blade. He was also inexperienced to other tactics in fighting such as a kick or a ram. He fought soley with his blade. Aromis used this to his advantage immediately, by performing something at first unthinkable to Drak'nosh: Aromis had dropped his blade. Thinking of it as a sign of surrender, Drak'nosh was at first disgusted, but he was surprised that as soon as the sword came out of his hands, that Aromis had backflipped out of the way of a sweeping strike, kicking Drak'nosh's hand in the process, causing him to let go of his blade. When Aromis's feet touched the ground, he immediately took action, performing a technique not performed by blademasters in a long time: a windwalk. Aromis had moved so fast that he had been infused to the air itself, making him an invisible blur to Drak'nosh. Before he knew it, Aromis's blade was hilt-deep into Drak'nosh's chest, the sword sticking out of his back. Despite the obvious pain, Drak'nosh didn't show any other emotion but happiness that he had been defeated. He died with a smile on his face. When he fell on his face after Aromis removed his blade from his chest, Drak'nosh did not bleed. Instead, a reddish energy dissipated from the wound and flew into the air, taking the form of Drak'nosh's physical appearance. It was his Elemental Spirit, ascending into the clouds to join his ancestors. But as he ascended, a bolt of energy from him came down to strike Aromis's blade, surrounding the sword with it. Drak'nosh's voice immediately breached Aromis's thoughts, telling him that his sword was now a beacon for the Spirits of the world, including the Elemental Spirits and lost souls that needed a guiding hand. When Aromis looked down at Drak'nosh's corpse, it had been disturbed. It was now on its back, his smile returning to his face, even after death. One arm was loosely extended to point at the fire crackling next to them. Aromis knew it was more than rigamortis. He heftied the orcish corpse, then set it on the elemental fire, destroying any worldly taint holding down Drak'nosh's soul, and destroying any worldly anchors other than Stars' Path. Aromis then decided on his next course of action: Travel to the human kingdoms of Stormwind to enlist in its military, to help the Alliance any way he can. Drak'nosh approved of this. Things don't always work out as intended. Corruption Aromis had taken a hippogryph to the lands of the Eastern Kingdoms, landing, much to his dismay, in the ruined Ghostlands, a lost part of the kingdom of Quel'thalas. Because he was so far away from his destination, he started up on his trek immediately. Lnowing that he had to pass through the Eastern and Western Plaguelands in order to get there, he was a tad nervous, worried about the tales that Drak'nosh had told him about the accursed lands. As soon as he stepped foot in the Eastern Plaguelands, he immediately had a sense of wrongness. The deeper into the Plaguelands he went, the more this wrongness turned into some sort of suggestion from a voice eerily similar to Drak'nosh's, only more sinister-sounding. From this point on, the supposed Drak'nosh impersonator was the only one he had contact with. The real Drak'nosh was banished, for the time being, replaced by this voice that was becoming more persuasive by the minute. Aromis, at times, almost veered off-course and followed ominous-looking paths. He stayed resilient for a long time, but was eventually broken. The voice had become too persuasive. Upon being broken, Aromis had been granted his vision, but not his own free will. With horror, he watched as he was guided through a winding cavern, and was bestowed upon a massive fortress floating high in the sky. Said fortress he would later learn was called Acherus: The Ebon Hold. He was brought up via bone gryphon, and by Instructor Rezuvious, was handed a Runeblade. The moment his hand gripped the hilt of the rune-etched sword, the pact was sealed. He had become a Death Knight. He forfeited Stars' Path to Rezuvious, and began his training as a Death Knight. Aromis had mainly dabbled in the arts of Unholy and Frost, but mainly Unholy. His time as a Frigid Knight paled in comparison to time spent as a Plague Knight. This had earned him some interesting powers... Because of how he had become a Death Knight, Aromis has never died. He didn't die when he grabbed the Rune Blade, and he didn't die in his campaign against the Scarlet Crusade. Speaking of the Scarlet Crusade, many of their ranks fell by his hand. He had slaughtered countless soldiers, and innocents, including women and children. His decimation of Scarlet forces had made him ascend into Scourge Commander status. Like all things, his time with the Scourge had come to an end. Welcomed Betrayal Aromis was present to see the betrayal of the Lich King. The immediate moment that it was revealed that Arthas had betrayed them, Aromis's memories came surging back to him. What he has done, and what he was. What he is now. It hit him hard, and fast. After silently grieving over his crimes, his first course of action was to recover Stars' Path so that he may return to Drak'nosh. After recovering his blade, he was given a letter addressed to the king of Stormwind, Varian Wrynn, by Darion Mograine, and shipped off to Stormwind to deliver it, and enlist in the Alliance military. All things happen for a reason after all. Personality Aromis is unique compared to his kin in that he isn't as bigoted as some Kaldorei may be. His only true prejudice rests against the Sin'dorei, in response to their disgusting crimes and worse habits and addictions. This is often contradicted by his distaste toward the Horde as a whole, and the atrocities they have committed upon the world. Being the soldier that he is, however, he gets worked up on the heat of battle, like any soldier would. While Aromis takes pride in what he is, and his knowledge of expertise in what he is, he is humbled by the memories of what he has done, and thus does not often flaunt his pride, like many Night Elves have a tendency to do. He is not traumatized or angered at being a Death Knight. In fact, he sees it as a boon, for he can combine his superb swordsmanship with the dark powers of the Scourge to create a terrifying war machine. Abilities Defining Aromis Blademaster Windwalk: Aromis is able to fuse himself with the wind, turning himself into an invisible blur and running at ridiculous speeds. Acrobatics: Aromis is a master at acrobatics, and can flip, parry, jump, and many other things in the heat of battle. Athleticism: Aromis is very hard to tire out, due to his extensive training. Unholy Unholy Dominance: Aromis is able to take the dark power that surrounds all things, draw it into himself or his Rune Blade, and release it in very destructive manners. He can release an empowered Death Coil called a Blight Coil, performing something similar to a Windwalk, where he dissipates into unholy energy and rematerializes another area, and if enough energy is redirected and empowered, release it in a cataclysmic blast of unholy chaos. The last technique is able to kill him, very easily if there isn't much energy to redirect around him. It forces him to draw it upon himself. Desecrating Strikes: Aromis can dissipate his weapon into pure dark energy, causing it to plague his oppressor, harm it further and more directly through armor, and cause desecration fallout on the ground, hindering movement. Frost Frigid Winds: Aromis is able to conjure foul blasts of bone-chilling winds, even in locations such as the Searing Gorge. Chilled Dreadplate: Aromis can coat himself and his armor in a thin layer of extremely durable ice, shielding him form some types of harm. Icy Dominance: Similar to Unholy Dominance, Aromis can create things such as pillars of ice, freezing winds, and massive blasts of icy energy depending on how much energy he can redirect. The main difference is that this relies on how much power he himself can conjure from his runes. Frigid Strikes: Aromis can turn his weapon into pure cold energy, piercing armor and killing foes directly from the intense cold, and empowering the weapon itself. Category:Night Elf Category:Death Knight Category:Alliance Death Knight